Spring is here!

Say goodbye to winter and hello to spring! no more bundling up to leave the house, time for fresh air, birds singing and sunshine!!! oh and our favorite spring sound of all the peeper frogs are out!
We have enjoyed a few random weeks of very warm weather this spring and it has made the flowers bloom earlier than usual and we are loving it!

It is so nice to have some warm weather and sunshine after a long cold winter!! Faith wakes up looks outside and says "it is a beautiful sunny day... lets go out!" she has had fun 'helping' me in the garden. This little girl is not afraid of dirt!
Now could this really be the same girl? She loved her Easter dress since it looked a lot like a ballerina dress ( one of her most favorite things in the world right now).

We are currently getting ready for a mini reunion with some of our China family. On Mothers day weekend we will celebrate 3 years since Faith officially became part of our family. We will be celebrating with the Cardwells and the Oswalds here at our house and we can not wait to see them all. Never did we expect when we went to China to adopt Faith that God would bless us with a new extended family. The 8 other families that we traveled with in China for 2 weeks are our family now we love them all dearly. It has been a blessing the last 2 years to get together with some of these families to celebrate "gotcha day", and to let these precious girls who started their lives together in a little orphanage in China continue their relationships throughout their lives. This year will have a little extra fun since Kylee Oswald will be bringing her new little brother Keller along! We can not wait to meet the little guy!

Flashback Friday

I just love looking back at the photos of Faith and her first year home. So in honor of all the snow we have gotten this week I decided to post a few pictures of Faith's first snow in 2007. She has always loved the cold and snow and always blesses us with her beautiful smile!

snow much fun!!!!

Yesterday we finally got a big snow fall here, not what our DC friends have gotten but the biggest of the season here. Faith and I had a good time shoveling and playing in the snow! She does not care how cold it is or if she gets snow in her face... like most everything in life Faith laughs at it!!! She is waiting now for Paul to return home from work he promised to make a huge snowman with her. And if I know Faith she will probably talk Paul into taking her sledding on the back hill! It is fun to be 3!!!

I'm Angelina Ballerina!!!!

Ta Da !!!!

My little Cowgirl Ballerina!

I have read that it is very good for little ones to be able to pretend play, and make believe. Well Faith gets an A+ in this subject!!! She is convinced she is Angelina Ballerina. She wakes up in the morning and puts on her Tutu and ballet slippers and twirls, leaps and flutters through the house! Today she put on her cowgirl boots with the Tutu and I just had to take a few pictures! She tells me she is dancing with her 'maginary' friends, Alice, AZ, and Marco.. oh and don't let me forget Gracie. (they are all the characters on the PBS show Angelina Ballerina) They often accompany us as we go to school or the store and sometimes church. We have all been cooperative and talked to them, buckled them into car seats and held hands with them in the car! She is such a fun loving, happy, smart little girl! Who could have a bad day when you have this little sweetie to smile at you!?! Thank you God for our little blessing!

Happy Birthday Ben!!

Well Grandma's was not the only Birthday we celebrated on the 24th of January, Ben had cheerfully shared his birthday with his Great Grandma for 17 years! It has often overshadowed his milestone birthday! For 15 years or more we have said it may be her last birthday, so he shared his celebration with her again this year. We did go out as a family for dinner for his birthday, and then we had cake and Ice cream for him the night before his birthday. He was not forgotten!
It has been really neat to watch Ben grow into a young man, He is a wonderful son and brother and we love him! He does not like to have his picture taken so I really had to search for these!

January

Well January proved to be far more exciting than we had originally anticipated. We were just recovering from the holidays when we got a very unexpected phone call from my brother's family saying they were going to fly out for a long weekend from Arizona from the 15th - 19th. We made plans for a one day road trip to Cazenovia to visit our Grandma a week early for her 100th birthday. Well while my Mom and I were busy getting ready for company, and Tom's family was flying from AZ, my Dad decided he did not feel well and he drove himself to the hospital just in time to have a heart attack right there in the ER. They rushed him to a better hospital with a heart center and did a catherization and put a stint in, the main artery to his heart was 99% blocked. Praise God he is doing great and actually feels better than he has in months! We did have a good time with Tom & family for the few days they were here, we have not seen them for about a year and a half. Faith had fun with Aunt NeeNee and Uncle Tom!!! She told me I was not special anymore and that Uncle Tom was here favorite!
Well, Dad was well enough to travel the following weekend to his Mom's house for a big celebration for Grandmas 100'th birthday. She is amazing! she still lives in her own home, next door to my Aunt and Uncle who help her a lot. There was a group of 15 people from her church who came to the house and sang Happy Birthday to her, and a lot of friends and family who stopped in to wish her a happy birthday. I have been blessed to have such a wonderful Grandma!

Christmas Day

Christmas day began at 5:45 when I heard Paul (19 years old) in the baby monitor trying to wake Faith up to go see what Santa had put in her stocking. Thank goodness he was not successful in waking her! He insisted it was family tradition that the kids be up before the sun to open stockings! We did finally wake her around 7:00


and as she was waking up sitting in my lap on her bed we were telling her it was Christmas day, she looked around the room, blank stare and said ... "now what?" It was not long before she figured out ...'what'! We had a great day with my Mom and Dad and Uncle Jim here for the day. She had lots of presents to open and enjoyed having Grammie here to read to her whenever she asked! Her favorite gifts seemed to be her toy blender and mixer from her brothers for her toy kitchen. Paul got some more climbing gear for work and Ben was excited to get some new Chef's knives. I got a new ipod and now need to get the boys to each me how to work it! Steve got me a new food processor and now Ben and I are looking for things to chop and shred in the kitchen! The boys got Steve a new cordless circular saw which he is looking forward to using. We finished up the day with a big turkey dinner with all the fixin's and Grandmas apple pie for dessert!